Yesterday at lunch, at one of my usual local midtown lunch spots—the ever-yummy Empanada Mama—my waitress asked me if I lived in Greenpoint, the Polish neighborhood where I do reside. Apparently, she saw me on the train to work last morning. She is one of my fellow commuters.

I mention this because I have been recently thinking about my morning commute. It is, in some ways, the highlight of my work day. For one, it is quite likely for me to see someone I know on the way there. To date, I have seen: Abby, J.R., Linsey, Cara, Matt, Kim, Sam and Sophie. Every morning there is a good chance that I'll have to put aside my paper and catch up with the latest with happenings.

And that is the people that is just the people I actually know. There are the others, the characters who commute with me, as we all wordlessly travel up to Queens and over to midtown. There is the girl who looks like Carin, who could quite possibly could be her. There is mustache dude with the impressive but unsightly handlebar number. The small-headed girl with the brown bob. The tall, somewhat annoying, over-talkative hipster guy. And so on...

I suppose I may be overstating this a little bit. Along with these familiar faces are hundreds of people who remain unnoticed, little more than obstacles on my path to work. It is with them I feel like part of the herd, all of us headed off to Manhattan for one more work day. To counter that, I have the comfort of having these people whom I recognize, the individuals in the faceless group, who remind me that I'm not the only one out there who does this commute thing. And I'm glad they ride with me.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I have a question that I ask people. It is a good question, because no matter what, no matter how much you resist, you get sucked into a long and drawn-out discussion, that is almost guaranteed to be entertaining. It is, in short, the perfect question. But all things have an expiration date, and it is time that this one goes on the shelf. I am retiring my favorite question.

It all started with a This American Life show on superheroes. In it, one of the TAL reporters, John Hodgman—more popularly known as the PC guy in the Mac ads—had this question that he would ask at parties. Ask the question, and just like water to a sponge, the conversation blossoms. Let's get this question of of the way right now. The question is:

Given the choice between flight or invisibility, what would you choose?

If you have not heard this question, you must now take a break from this reading and go ask someone this question. Go right now, and ask someone, ideally a random stranger, and come back when you have an answer. Really, go do that right now, and come back when you are done.

Wasn't that fun? Wasn't that so much better than asking about work, majors or, not to put too fine a point on it, most anything else you can thing of? This is the allure of the question.

I've toned down the use of this question, but it came up twice this week in passing. On one occasion, I was talking about the purchasing process at thesuperhero store in Brooklyn, where you have to say your superhero name to buy things, and hence you need to have a some sort of moderate background story to support that name. So when I buy my McSweeney's, I tell them my name is Subway man, and I have the power to control all the trains in New York. While I think that this is a suitable superpower, the crowd was unimpressed, which lead to a general superpower discussion, and inevitably, the question.

Last night I was telling my friend how I got called on this question—someone actually had listened to the above radio show—unfortunately, one of the people in the group had not heard it, and we got sucked into the conversation again. My poor girlfriend and one of my best fiends had to again be sucked into the unavoidable superhero discussion. And for that, I am not proud.

I am sad that there exists not a better question, but I've tapped this question out. I vow from here on out to not ask anyone the question.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Another big Tuesday vote day tomorrow, and I have this feeling that it will decide nothing. I do not mean this in the Russian sense with the token Medvedev election last weekend. No, I mean that tomorrow will be another gut-wrenching example of a full-on contest that is going to go on till every state has voted, and then maybe a bit more than that, just for good measure.

This morning I was talking to one of friends about how I am feeling about this never-ending best-election-ever situation. I came up with an analogy: this Democratic nomination is like The Ashes if the cricket match were to last, say, months, and I were to care about cricket. Both have oblique and seemingly non-sensible rules and it is hard to tell who is winning, even if you know what is going on.

Even though I know the race will go on, I still have a knot in my stomach because I want my side to win. Tomorrow will not be the end of the game, but the score will be different, and that my friend, is exciting. I best get some sleep so I can see how my old state votes. Don't mess this up, Texas.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)